World TB Day, falling on March 24 each year, is designed to build public awareness that tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world, causing the deaths of nearly one-and-a-half million people each year, mostly in developing countries. It commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of Koch’s announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch’s discovery opened the way towards diagnosing and curing TB.
According to Carolyn Leone, RN, BSN, TB Controller for Richland County and a Public Health Clinic nurse at the Mansfield/Ontario/Richland County Health Department, Richland County is a “low risk community” for TB, with about one case reported a year. There are some unique characteristics about Richland County, however.
“Anytime you have communal living facilities, like ManCi and RiCi (the two correctional facilities in Richland County), you have an elevated risk level,” stated Leone. That’s why the Health Department does “targeted testing” for employees in those situations, as well as health care workers (including everyone employed at the Health Department).
“We don’t do testing for the general public unless they are directed us to by their health care provider,” Leone said. “If you have any question, call the Health Department (419-774-4700) and ask to speak to a Clinic TB nurse.” Cost for a TB test is $18 and appointments are necessary.
TB is curable, but, according to the Stop TB Partnership, current efforts to find, treat and cure everyone who gets ill with the disease are not sufficient. Of the nine million people a year who get sick with TB, a third of them are “missed” by public health systems.
Many of these three million people live in the world’s poorest, most vulnerable communities and include groups such as migrants, miners, drug users and sex workers.
World TB Day calls for a global effort to find, treat and cure the three million and accelerate progress towards zero TB deaths, infections, suffering and stigma.